1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to methods and apparatuses for effectively displaying musical information such as notes and beats with visual displays. Particularly, this invention relates to electronic musical apparatuses for visually displaying musical notes, beats and tempos, such as electronic musical instruments as well as personal computers and game devices that run music software programs, for example. In addition, this invention also relates to machine-readable media storing programs that cause computers to visually display the musical information with the visual displays.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, the electronic musical apparatuses such as the electronic musical instruments and music training machines are designed to have functions of musical note/beat display methods. According to the conventional musical note display method, the electronic musical apparatuses are equipped with visual displays that display notes on staffs (or staves) to designate pitches or keys which are sequentially depressed in response to a progress of a tune to be played. Some electronic musical apparatuses, for example, are equipped with visual displays that display two kinds of staffs, i.e., a low-pitch staff and a high-pitch staff, which will be referred to as a bass staff and a treble staff respectively. Herein, notes are displayed in a slant-arrangement manner on the base staff and treble staff respectively in such a way that they are arranged at note display positions disposed in a direction from the lower left to the upper right of the visual display.
According to the conventional musical beat display method, the electronic musical apparatus uses a single LED (i.e., Light-Emitting Diode) to display beats (or timings of beats) in progress of the tune to be played. Herein, the LED is turned on at the timing of the beat. To cope with a shift of the measure of the tune, the LED is lighted in a different manner (such as different brightness and different color) for display of a first beat of the measure as compared with other beats of the measure. Or, the electronic musical apparatus is equipped with multiple indicators, which are arranged in line. Herein, the indicators are sequentially turned on at the timings of the beats.
In the musical notation, for example, the piano score is written in such a way that both of the bass staff and treble staff have the same length in left-right directions. The conventional electronic musical apparatuses are used to employ such notation in display of notes on the staffs. If the electronic musical apparatus employs such notation in display of staffs, it may succeed to somewhat actualize a visual display simulating an image of a real musical score. In general, it is demanded that the visual display have a capability to display a relatively large amount of information. However, the notation of the piano score is disadvantageous in effective use of the area for the visual display of the electronic musical apparatus. That is, the note display positions are normally arranged in the slantarrangement manner corresponding to the direction from the lower left to the upper right of the visual display, so the notes are not displayed on a right half portion of the bass staff and a left half portion of the treble staff respectively. In other words, those portions merely display the staffs each consisting of five lines or so.
According to the aforementioned musical beat display method, the beats are designated using points of light, which cause some problems as follows:
That is, the users of the electronic musical apparatuses have somewhat mechanical feelings and uninteresting feelings in watching the display of the beats using the points of light. In addition, the beginners and children have difficulties in understanding the functions of the LEDs which are turned on to designate the timings of the beats respectively.
For this reason, even if the engineers succeed to secure a relatively broad display area in the visual display of the electronic musical apparatus, it is difficult to effectively use such a broad display area by the conventional musical beat display method. In other words, the conventional musical beat display method cannot solve the aforementioned problems by merely providing the LEDs to actualize the points of light for designation of the beats.
The paper of Japanese Utility-Model Application, Publication No. Sho 51-121662 discloses a utility model realizing a music score reading board (e.g., music stand), which is designed to merely display the bass staff and treble staff in connection with the keys of the keyboard. However, such a utility model does not provide an effective way for displaying notes, beats and tempos. That is, the utility model is incapable of effectively using open areas such as the right side of the bass staff and the left side of the treble staff.
Some electronic musical instruments are designed to have a capability of displaying beats by flashing light or some images on the screens thereof. However, such electronic musical instruments are designed to have a capability of displaying a selected music element (e.g., beats) using a single segment because of the limited display areas thereof. So, they require a large display space or a number of display areas to simultaneously display multiple music elements such as the notes, beats and tempos, for example.